From Adam to Malachi- Sermon 2
Gen. 5:21-24
ENOCH - THE MAN WHO WALKED WITH GOD
Period 1: The Beginnings (Genesis 1-11)10,000 (?) - 2000 BC
1) Creation - Genesis 1-2
2) Condemnation (Paradise Lost)- Genesis 3
3) Civilizations –Genesis 4-5
4) Condemnation (The Flood)
5) Civilizations
6) Condemnation (The Confused Languages and Separation)
In these first 8000+ years of human history, we see the spread of CIVILIZATION from the line of Cain. The Bible and archeology point to the domestication of livestock, the development of music, and the invention of tools (4:19-23 f). But side by side with it, we see the spread of SIN to spoil it. Cain’s descendents culminate in Lamech who murdered a young man for hurting him and then boasted to his wives (plural) that he was seven times as evil as Cain (4:23-24).
This leads to the inevitability of judgment. This evil festered and intensified until it finally brought about the judgment of the Flood (Gen. 6). This was followed by the judgment at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11) and the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18). And the story of civilization will end at the judgment of the Return of Christ (1 Th. 4:12-5:10) Dr. Criswell said, “Man has learned to fly through the air like an Eagle; bore through the earth like a mole; and swim through the oceans like a fish; but has never learned to walk on the earth like the human being God intended him to be.” The image of God in us enables us to build great civilizations, but the sin in us causes us to tear it down.
But thank God we see, from the line of Seth; the spread of salvation. In Seth we see
the worship of God; as men called on the name of the Lord (4:26). In Enoch we see those who walk with God and are welcomed by him into heaven. And in Noah we see those who work and witness for God, and are saved from judgment. Today we look at Enoch. Three passages tell his story.
Gen. 5:21-24 (NIV)
"When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
Heb. 11:5
"By faith Enoch was taken out of this life and did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. Before he was taken, he was complimented as one who pleased God".
Jude 14-15
“Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these (evil) men: ‘Look, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have committed in such ungodly ways, and of all the harsh things ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These men follow their own evil desires.”
A. ENOCH’S WALK
1. A Saved Life
The Christian life is often compared to walking. (Eph. 4:1 / I Jn. 1:6-7). This points to a lifelong process and relationship. And it has a starting point. We are not born walking with God; but yelling and screaming to have things our way. Jude calls it “following our own evil desires”.
It begins with a touch from God. At age 65, when his son Methusaleh was born, God got Enoch’s attention. God uses pleasure and pain to get our attention.
Henry Brant told of a Christian lawyer who once had no interest in things of God. He was not an evil person but an indifferent one. Then something happened that changed his life. His eight year old daughter drowned in their pool and he said, "I turned to God because, for the first time in my life, I faced something I could not handle."
It begins with trust. Hebrews says Enoch pleased God with his faith. We confess our sins and trust God to forgive us. Don’t let anyone tell you there is an Old Testament plan of salvation and a New Testament plan. The way of the Old and the New is to reach up in faith to the love of God reaching down to us. Look at ABEL! He is accepted by God because he brings a lamb for sacrifice. We are accepted only because of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Look at ENOCH! He pleased God because he believed God.
It begins with a transformation, what Jesus called a new birth. This is repentance, a sorrow for sin that leads us to commit, with God’s enablement, to live a life that pleases Him. Hebrews says Enoch pleased God and Jude tells how he preached against all ungodliness.
2. A Sustained Life
The beautiful term “walk” speaks of a sustained life. The transformed character of the new birth leads to a transformed life. Too many evangelical Christians see salvation as something that happened to them in the past and not something that is happening to them in the here and now. They feel secure in some past experience, when the only assurance the Bible gives us is in our fruit or works (Mt. 7 / James 2:1ff) If the past experience was really the work of God, it still happens in the here and now.
1) Sustained repentance. The repentance and faith we began our walk with (Luke 3:1-14), becomes part of our daily lives (1 Jn. 1:7-10). It is a sin hating and sin fighting life. Sin is transgression of the laws of God and God’s people still sin. The Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation”, but Enoch waited until his child was born to turn to God. The Bible says, “The drunkard will not inherit the kingdom of God” but Noah got drunk. The Bible says God’s hates a lie (Prov. 6); but Abraham’s lied twice about Sarah; by letting Pharaoh take her as a wife. We cross forbidden lines, but when we do, we say with Paul, but with Paul we say, “I do the thing I hate / Who will deliver me?” (Rom. 7)
2) Sustained reliance- We life lives of repentance and faith. Enoch is one of the heroes of Hebrews 11 and the main thing God praises is their continued trust. With God by our side, when we lose our job we believe He has a better one waiting. When the one we love refuses to marry us, we believe it is because God has someone better on down the line. When our health fails, we believe God is bringing health to our souls. When death comes to take us, we believe God is calling us home. It is, from start to finish, a life of trust.
3. A Separated life
These chapters contrast the line of Cain and the line of Seth. The contribution of the line of Cain was progress; that of Seth was holiness. Cain’s descendants built cities. Seth’s built character. The friend of God loves God more than the things of this world. The spiritual takes precedence over the material. It is not that material possessions, culture and the arts are sinful; it is that too many people make this their priority. Of all the sins Jesus mentioned, the sin of accumulating wealth is at the top. He capitalized the term “Money” (Mammon) and said, “You cannot serve God and Money; for you will hate the one and love the other.”
Jesus described the decadent days before God’s final judgment on the world; comparing them to the cruel days of Noah and perverse days of Sodom. But He does not mention cruelty or sexual perversion. Those are obvious. He said, “They ate, they drank, they married, they bought and they sold" (Lk. 17). He does not mention one sin! What He mentions are good, law abiding, moral people, who are too busy for God. . To them God is not an enemy, He is simply unnecessary.
Sin is still the scourge of our society. The stone age savage with a bone through his nose and a spear in his hand is no different from the college graduate in a supersonic jet with his thumb on the trigger. Being smarter has made us no better. Our wisdom has given us weapons of mass destruction. Putting them in our hands is like giving razor blades to babies in a nursery.
4. A Satisfying Life
You do not keep walking with someone who brings you dissatisfaction. The hymnal puts it,
When we walk with the Lord / In the light of His Word /
What a glory He sheds on our way / While we do His good will,
He abides with us still / And with all who will trust and obey
This shows the power of relationship is far superior to the power of religion. Enoch and God walked together for 300 years. This longevity was the result of love. The whole picture here is that of two very dear friends - Enoch and God walking together. One thing that strikes me is Enoch’s walk is so uneventful, so lacking in glamour, so routine. We do not read that he charged any hill like Joshua, or brought any king to his knees like Moses, or brought fire down from heaven like Elijah, or had a ship destroyed beneath him like Paul, or died a martyr’s death like Stephen. All he did was walk with God.
Enoch never grew bored or tired of walking and the reason was he walked with GOD. You will get bored to death saying your prayers and having a daily prayer time. But when prayer becomes for you a laying hold of the person and presence and power of God, then it will become an adventure. You will get bored to death doing your daily Bible readings. But when the Book comes alive and God speaks to you from its pages, then Bible study will never grow old. You will get bored to death with the dull routine of going to church, but, if you ever start entering the house of God and experiencing the presence of God in worship, you will hunger for the house of God.
II . ENOCH’S WELCOME.
In the Bible’s first miracle God took Enoch to heaven without dying. He did it again years later for Elijah and He will do for all Christians at the return of Christ (I Cor. 15:51; I Thess. 4:15-17). God did this to show us WHAT LIFE IS. Life is measured by its donation not by its duration. At the tender age of 365 years God called Enoch home to heaven. I say "tender” because he was the youngest man in this chapter to die. In this age before the flood when men lived almost a thousand years, Enoch’s death was like that of a thirty year old man today. Enoch lived so close to God and did his work so well that his “day’s work was done at noon” (Spurgeon).
I can hear God saying, "Come on home, Enoch. There is no need for you to be out of heaven any longer; you have borne your testimony, you have lived for me; throughout the ages men will look to you as a model of true godliness and therefore you can come on home.” Over a hundred people died in last month’s plane disaster, but one little three year old girl survived because her mother shielded her little body from the flames with her own body. That’s what life is – DONATION; not DURATION. It is not how many years we put in; but how much we put into the years we do have.
It also shows WHAT DEATH IS. In another disaster last month a church bus is swept away in a Texas flood. The children climbed trees, got on top of the bus, and held on for dear life. A helicopter dropped a rope to a 12 year old girl. On the way up her little grip fails and she starts to slip. Before she plunges to her death, she calls out to her friends in the nearby tree, "I will see you in heaven. Tell my mama and daddy I love them.” That precious child had hope and her mama and daddy have hope, that one day, at death or the return of Jesus their family will be reunited. He will say to each of His people, Come home my child! Come home my friend! We who walk with God are not swallowed up by the ground we are taken up.
